Half-Life The Convergence
by deathwing17
Summary: A Council funded expedition into a previously unexplored system has gone horribly wrong. Now the expedition team find themselves stranded on a hostile world and hunted by a ruthless enemy. They soon join forces with a group of rebels hell-bent on freeing their home world and stopping a threat that could destroy all of galactic civilization. A threat known only as the Combine.
1. New Discoveries and Recruiting

Half-Life The Convergence

Chapter 1

New Discoveries and Recruiting

disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Half Life, (if I did then Half Life 3 would have come out years ago and Mass Effect 3's ending wouldn't have been so damned unsatisfying)

also I won't really be able to update this fic as much at first since I'm focusing on two other stories at the moment and I'm focusing on college courses.

* * *

-Sol System-

* * *

In an isolated and remote system in one of the spiral arms in the Milky-Way galaxy there was a star system known to its inhabitants as the Solar system. There were eight (nine if you included Pluto) planets in this system but only the third planet away from the sun was capable of creating and sustaining life.

At the farthest edge of the Solar system a large thick spherical shaped block of ice and dust continued its orbit of the small dwarf planet known to the inhabitants of this particular star system as Pluto. The spherical piece of ice stayed in orbit as it had for millions, perhaps even billions of years.

However tremors spread across the ice sphere causing the small planetoid to shake violently as untold amounts of energy began to form underneath it. After a few moments the energy that was being released from underneath the planetoid reached the point where the ball of ice could no longer contain it. The energy built up soon caused the ice ball to explode outwards sending massive amounts of debris flying out into the void of space.

Eventually after a few days, most of the larger chunks of debris had finally finished clearing the area of explosion and they either crashed into or settled into an orbit around the small planetoid.

Underneath the ice and dust of the moon was an ancient alien transit device that was perhaps billions of years old. This device was known by a number of different species as a Mass Relay. Only a few moments later the long dormant Mass Relay had finally reactivated and a large number of small cylinder shaped objects each one was roughly the exact same size of an average adult human male were catapulted into the system from the other side of the galaxy.

Each of these objects were probes, each and every last one of them had been specifically designed to survey a star system to check for habitable worlds for further exploration. Over the course of the next several days the probes passed each and every planet taking numerous scans of the atmospheres to see if any were possibly habitable, and if any of the planets were habitable then there was a possibility that there was sentient life on the world.

Eventually one of the probes came upon the planet that was in the habitable zone of the star system, it wasn't too far away from sun and yet at the same time not too close. The probe had been programmed to keep a great distance away from the planet in order to avoid being caught in the planet's gravitational field and took several scans of the planet as well as the small debris belt of various satellites and other machines that surrounded it. The scans showed that the planet was indeed a garden world but that was all that it could confirm for a fact.

The reason for this was that the probe couldn't get anything other than very low resolution images and scans of the surface because every time it attempted to do so what appeared to be some form of strange electromagnetic interference that would after a few seconds, completely overcome the probe's optical sensors.

However before the jamming completely overcame the scanners of the probe it managed to get a handful of clean images of ruins of several cities as well as forests, deserts, jungles and oceans that were part of the planet's biome. Their programming requirements having been fulfilled the probes made their way back to the Mass Relay which sent them all back from whence they came.

* * *

-Archeological Dig Site, Korari jungle planet, one week later-

* * *

Korari was what most of the space faring species of the galaxy would call a steaming garden world. The reason for this, was for one single and obvious reason. Korari itself was in the habitable region of the system and aside from both the planet's oceans and the large number of settlements (read: vacation resorts) that dotted several areas on the planet which were mainly based along the coastline, Korari was completely overcome in a thick, seemingly endless jungle.

But thick jungles and numerous vacation spots weren't the only things that the planet had to offer the many species of the galaxy. Underneath the jungle canopy were numerous Prothean ruins that dotted most of the center of the planet's largest continent. This made the place very attractive to archeologists and other scientists who wished to study the vast numbers of Prothean ruins that dotted the area.

One such scientist, an Asari by the name of Liara T'Soni had recently joined a group of researchers that had arrived on the surface of the planet only a couple of weeks earlier in order to study and document some of the many ruins and artifacts.

Currently Liara was inside one of these ruins, a relatively small building that was once made out of a thick stone that was now almost completely covered in the jungle's foliage. The inside of the ruin had a second story but the staircase that led upwards into it was little more than a pile of rubble due to several thousand years' worth of neglect. The floor of the ruin was covered in a mixture of moss and dirt. However there was a small cylindrical object that was partially exposed in the dirt.

Liara wiped several beads of sweat that had formed off of her brow as she continued to scrape away at the dirt that covered most of the ruin with her hand tools while trying to gently dig the prothean artifact out of the dirt that it was currently stuck in. Despite being on the planet for over a week the young Asari scientist still wasn't really used to the almost boiling temperature of Korari's seemingly endless expanse of jungle.

The Asari maiden had always enjoyed studying prothean ruins and the knowledge that they held within them. Ever since Liara was but a child the field of archeology was always a prevalent interest. Eventually Liara completely devoted herself to that field of research and after a number of years of hard work Liara acquired a degree from a very prestigious university back on Thessia. However despite some of her achievements, some of Liara's theories on why the Protheans had vanished usually fell on deaf ears mainly due to her pureblood status as well as her relatively young age.

Liara frowned at the mere thought of that vulgar term she had been forced to deal with for most of her life. Asari purebloods were the offspring from a union of two Asari rather than an Asari and a member of a different sentient species. Whenever an Asari mated with a member of another race more insight and knowledge to that race was gained but when an Asari mated with another Asari nothing was gained and was instead considered just a waste time and genetic material.

Because of this throughout most of her life Liara T'Soni had been treated very poorly by other members of her species because of her pureblood heritage. Although most other Asari wouldn't insult her openly primarily due to her mother's political status, the underlying tone was almost always there whenever she spoke to someone back home and that had always managed to upset her. Despite the poor treatment that Liara had received from others she still continued to press onwards with her life and was very much determined to make the most of it.

Liara did her best to remove those kinds of thoughts from her mind and instead just turned back to the artifact that she had been examining. It was a much more unique looking prothean artifact than what she had been used to.

The artifact itself was rather small, roughly the same size and shape as her forearm and looked almost like a cylindrical container and every square inch of it was covered in small prothean writing. Perhaps it was some sort of grave marker but she quickly discarded that possibility as there weren't any real indications that this area was at one point part of some sort of mausoleum.

The young archeologist picked up the artifact and put it onto a nearby table where the other artifacts were being stored until they could be moved to a more appropriate location for more detailed study through much better equipment than what they had been given. The young Asari scientist took a big gulp of water from her canteen and idly wondered as to what it was that her mother was doing back on Thessia.

Liara was broken out of her thoughts when one of her colleagues called out "Hey Liara!" from a few dozen meters away "What is it?" Liara asked getting up from examining the artifact that she had found and turned to go and face the one that had called out for her "There's someone back at the main research cabin who says that he needs to see you right away, the guy said that it was very important" the other asari researcher had called out.

Liara got up from where she was sitting and brushed off some of the dirt that had been clinging to her clothes and promptly walked back towards the primary research cabin. As she walked she passed some more archeologists that were still attempting to excavate the ruins that were in the area but since the ruins were a little on the fragile side, the process was slow going as they didn't want to damage any of the artifacts that may be buried there.

Once Liara had finally reached the main cabin the automated doors swung open and allowed her entry. Liara walked inside to find that there was a male salarian standing just a few feet front of her.

"Are you doctor T'Soni?" the salarian asked, and appeared to be rather hopeful about something. Liara nodded in confirmation "Yes I'm Liara T'Soni. May I ask what's going on here?"

"My name is Rylon, I'm with the Citadel Exploration and Research Department, as you well know we're the ones who have helped fund most of your expeditions, the heads of the CERD as well as some members of the Citadel government have requested your presence immediately" the Salarian explained. Liara looked a bit shocked at that, the heads of the CERD _and_ members of the Citadel government wanted to see _her_ she was just some archeologist not some important political figure like her mother.

What could they possibly want with someone as unimportant as her?

Before Liara would comply with what it was that the salarian was asking of her however, she had to know just what was going on first "Can you at least tell me as to why it is that I'm needed?" however the salarian just gave the young woman a shrug in response.

"All that I know is that the head of the CERD told me to bring you to the Citadel immediately and they definitely aren't going take no for an answer" the salarian explained.

Liara sighed, she really didn't want to abandon her work here seeing as how she had only arrived only two weeks ago but she had very little alternative seeing as the CERD were the main source of funds for much of the archeological digs that she undertook. This meant that she literally had no other options available to her than to do as the CERD asked of her.

"Very well, just let me go and collect my belongings" said Liara before heading back towards the living quarters to gather what few possessions that she had brought with her on the dig. After she was finished she went with the Salarian to the shuttle that would take her to the Citadel where she would hopefully get some hopefully get a damned decent answer as to what it was that she was being dragged back to the massive space station for.

* * *

-Citadel, Zakera Ward, several hours later-

* * *

The Zakera Ward of the Citadel was one of the more crime ridden areas of the massive starfish shaped space station. Because of this there were a large number of C-Sec outposts. Citadel Security or C-Sec as it was more commonly called was the law enforcement agency of the Citadel and as such was charged with protecting those that lived on the Citadel from criminal activities.

In one of these outposts, a frustrated Turian detective by the name of Garrus Vakarian was sitting behind a desk typing things into a small data pad that he was looking over. Garrus sighed, if there was one thing that he hated more than criminals that got away with their crimes then it would have to be anything that even remotely resembled paper work.

Garrus had always felt that such trivialities took up way too much of his time when he could have been doing something more useful and important but Garrus stomached this annoying part of his duties as best he could. Right now he was writing a report trying to explain a bar brawl in Chora's Den that involved a trio of Batarians who were drunk and stupid enough to try and pick a fight with a Krogan mercenary who was later identified as Urdnott Wrex.

Although none of the six Batarians had been killed, they all had to be sent to the hospital to be treated for several broken bones, dislocated limbs and other severe injuries.

The instant that Garrus along with a four man squad had responded to the call had entered Chora's Den one of Garrus' fellow officers, another Turian by the name of Sidonis was instantly struck in the chest by a flying semiconscious Batarians patron who had been flung at the entrance to the bar by the rampaging Krogan.

The C-Sec officers attempted to restrain the Krogan first, seeing as how he probably represented the biggest threat and also because most of the other Batarians were so injured that they couldn't resist arrest even if they tried, spirits most of them weren't even conscious by that point.

In hindsight going after a Krogan by using traditional C-Sec methods was terrible a mistake on their part and the officers along with Garrus himself ended up being brought into the bar brawl as well. Garrus winced a little at the memory of when he was almost casually tossed aside by the Krogan mercenary's biotics and into where the bartender gave drinks to the bar's patrons.

The brawl itself eventually got so completely out of control that by the time that Garrus had managed to call in for some extra backup in order to restrain Wrex long enough to get some cuffs on him over half of the bar was completely in ruins. And now Garrus was stuck with the bureaucratic crap since he was the one that was put in charge of the team that went into that insanity.

Garrus was so focused on finishing up the paperwork and getting back to his real job that he failed to notice the person that had walked into the squad room and was now standing directly behind him "Garrus Vakarian?" the individual asked whose voice sounded just like a male Turian's voice.

Garrus sighed and wondered if he had even more paperwork to work on and turned around and much to his surprise didn't see any of the other high ranking C-Sec officers but was instead face to face with a Turian that was wearing pitch black combat armor that had a single.

It took Garrus a few moments to realize that the Turian that he was looking at was actually a member of the Citadel's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance unit that was more commonly known as the Spectres judging by the armor and the weapons that the guy had on his holsters as well as the way that he carried himself.

"Yes that's me" said Garrus wondering to himself as to what in the name of the Spirits was going on. The Turian Spectre examined the C-Sec officer a little more closely "The same Garrus Vakarian that scored in the top five in his class at the military academy and that has a near perfect record as a C-Sec officer for the past three and a half years?"

"Yeah" the Turian C-Sec officer responded "Well then Garrus Vakarian I'm Nihlus Kryik and I'm going to have to ask you to come with me, now" the Spectre ordered. Garrus looked back at the data pad and the report that he still needed to fill out.

"But I still have to finish writing this report and-" he started but was instantly cut off by Nihlus.

"One of your fellow officers will be finishing the report up for you" he said with a tone that suggested that any further arguments with him would be a very unwise decision "Alright," Garrus said somewhat reluctantly as he got up off of his chair and gestured to the Spectre in front of him.

"Lead the way Spectre" he said feeling a little more than eager to be getting out and doing something interesting rather than being cooped up in a C-Sec outpost trying to complete a pile of nearly pointless paperwork. As Garrus walked out of the office he saw the Krogan from earlier being let out of the C-Sec holding cells by someone that looked like another Spectre only this one was an Asari that looked somewhat familiar to Garrus before he finally realized that the Spectre he was looking at was Tela Vasir.

Garrus recognized the Asari Spectre because she had been featured in an exclusive interview on the Citadel News Program which had captured the interest of many at the time. Unfortunately for many of the viewers who had been hoping for something very interesting to be revealed, most of the questions that the reporter on the news program had asked had almost always been answered with a "I'm sorry but that's classified information" it was still rather interesting to see a Spectre being put on a live news vid seeing as how most Spectres preferred to keep away from those kind of things.

However Garrus' thoughts soon turned to the Krogan mercenary that was trailing right behind her which caused Garrus to ask the Spectre "What in the name of the spirits is that Krogan doing out of lockup?" he asked. Tela who was leading the Krogan around responded to Garrus' questions in a well-rehearsed voice "He's just been hired by the CERD who have also generously paid for his bail."

Garrus was really surprised by that and for a moment he honestly didn't have a response for that, why in the hell would a well-known and well respected organization such as the Citadel Exploration and Research Department want to hire a Krogan mercenary, especially one that had just been arrested for participating in a bar fight that ended up hospitalizing a number of those that had been involved including a couple of C-Sec officers, that sort of action had nothing but bad PR written all over it.

However Garrus decided that it would probably be for the better to not voice any these opinions considering that there were a pair of Spectres nearby and quite frankly he wasn't really feeling like arguing with a pair of highly trained and heavily armed members of the Council's special forces unit so Garrus just followed them and did his best to keep his mouth shut.

Unfortunately for the C-Sec officer the Krogan merc from earlier marched right on over to him and he emitted what Garrus assumed to be a chuckle while having a smug grin that he had on his face "Well, it looks like those charges aren't going to stick after all," the Krogan said in a vain attempt to bait the Turian C-Sec officer. Garrus let out an annoyed sigh but other than that he simply kept his mouth shut. The Turian officer had a feeling that this was going to end up being a long day and he didn't want to get into another fight with a Krogan.

Seeing as how the Turian wasn't going to be any fun Wrex looked over at Tela Vasir and spoke up "Hey, Spectre lady, where in the hells are we going anyways?" Wrex demanded. The asari Spectre responded immediately "We're going to the headquarters of the Council Exploration and Research Department where everyone will be briefed when we arrive" she explained as they continued to the transport that would take them to their destination.

* * *

-Citadel, Zakera Ward-

* * *

Tali Zorah Nar Rayya was not having a good day. The young Quarian was only four and a half days into her pilgrimage and already things had started to go wrong. Upon leaving the Migrant Fleet in the ship that she had been given Tali headed for the Citadel, hoping to find a job that would allow her to get her enough credits that would allow her to buy something that would be of some use to the Migrant Fleet.

However once she docked she had to go through a lengthy talk with C-Sec customs who had thought of her as little more than just a beggar or thief. It took over three hours but eventually Tali managed to convince them that she wasn't there to cause any trouble for anybody.

After the long chat with C-Sec she was finally let out into the Wards where she was hard pressed to find any paying jobs that were available. Most of the jobs that had even been willing to consider her were very menial at best and on top of that barely paid a couple hundred credit's a week! That was lower than minimum wage!

Right now the young Quarian was standing right in front of a C-Sec officer as well as a Volus the latter of whom had continued to spew bigoted remarks about her people while he continued to demand that she be arrested for stealing his credit chit which of course did _not_ happen seeing as how she wasn't anywhere near him when the Volus started calling for C-Sec and spouting accusations of stealing from him at her.

Now Tali was stuck with a Turian C-Sec officer who was still attempting to get both sides of the story from the Volus as well as Tali. Currently it was Tali's turn to tell the story.

"And just like I told that Volus, all I did was walk out of that used machinery store, not even noticing this guy until he started screaming at the top of his lungs about how he had been robbed and not two moments later accusing me as the who had stolen his damned credit chit" she explained with no small amount of annoyance. The Turian brought up his Omni-Tool and began to run a scan of Tali to see if she did indeed have the Volus' credit chit.

The Volus just made what Tali assumed to be a scoffing noise but it was difficult to be absolutely sure with the hiss like respiration noises that the Volus' suit made in-between almost every other word he said. "This *hiss* clanless thief stole my credit chit *hiss*, she had to have done it *hiss* she was the one that was closest to where I was standing when I found it to be missing! After all we all know how they're like," he rasped while he pointed an accusatory finger right at Tali.

It was then that Tali had all but completely lost her temper with that last sentence. The bigotry that she had been enduring over the last few days slowly started to eat at her patience and now her temper was on the verge of a major meltdown

"So because I'm a Quarian that automatically means that I stole your credit chit when _you_ may very well have just dropped the damned thing by accident somewhere?!" Tali demanded. She was really starting to get fed up from all of the racism that she had received ever since she had left the Migrant Fleet.

Before the C-Sec officer or the Volus merchant could make any sort of a reply to that, the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted them. The three individuals turned to see a salarian who was holding what appeared to be a credit chit in his right hand "Excuse me but I think that this may belong to you, you are Pitne-For right?" the salarian asked looking over the credit chit's ID unit.

The volus immediately nodded his head "Then I think that this belongs to you, you dropped it on your way out of one of the shops" the salarian explained before handing the Volus the credit chit. Upon receiving his credit chit Pitne-For marched away from an irritated Tali without even an apology for the mistake he made while the C-Sec officer did the same.

The salarian however didn't leave the area and instead spoke up, "My name is Milos I represent the Citadel Exploration and Research Department and I was wondering if I could offer you a job" the salarian introduced.

Tali gave the salarian male a look of skepticism behind her visor. This was the first person who had walked up to her and offered _her_ a job, usually she had to go into the recruiting area of a business just to see if she could just get a job interview. And most of the time she was rarely even given the opportunity for something like that.

"So, what kind of job is it?" Tali asked. Milos hesitated for a moment or two before answering. He honestly didn't really understand much about the job either. When Milos had asked his boss about it, all they told him was that this was on a need to know basis and that if he continued to question his orders then his job would be on the line.

Eventually Milos just decided to give the blunt truth to what was going on or at least all that he knew about what was going on "To be perfectly honest I'm not really sure either, they just told me to find someone with good engineering skills for some kind of a project that they were working on and from what I've read about the Quarians and the Migrant Fleet I figured that you would probably be as good a choice as any" he said before he continued.

"And I've been asked to tell you that the amount of money you'd be making would be quite substantial, at least five hundred credits per day" he explained. Behind her environmental suit's face plate Tali had a look of genuine surprise and amazement. That was at least ten times the normal amount of credits that she'd get at a normal job. Of course that was if anyone would even consider accepting her period due to her being a "suit rat." This must have been something of great interest.

"You're serious?" Tali asked who was still a bit skeptical about the job offer "Why would I lie about something like this?" the salarian asked. Tali thought about it for a moment, she was down to her last few credits and she no longer had a ship that could take her anywhere therefore she had nothing to lose but much to gain if she accepted the Salarian's job offer. Not wasting any time Tali gave her answer to the recruiting agent "Alright then, I accept your offer"

The salarian practically grinned. For a brief moment there he had actually thought that Tali wouldn't accept the job offer "Please come with me then" the salarian insisted before he headed for what Tali assumed to be a nearby Citadel rapid transit station. Without any hesitation Tali followed the salarian.

* * *

-CERD Headquarters, Presidium-

* * *

Once Liara had arrived at the Citadel it was a good forty-five minute ride on the Citadel's rapid transit system from the docking bays to the CERD HQ located in the Citadel's presidium. Each of the Citadel's arms were each bustling metropolises seeing as how all of them had well over ten million inhabitants. And each arm of the citadel was nearly fifty miles in diameter.

Business headquarters, residences, and places where people could socialize with one another could all be found there as well as a multitude of races that called the Citadel their home. The central ring of the Citadel that held all of the Wards together was known as the Presidium. This central structure was the heart of the Citadel government. It housed dozens of embassies that belonged too many different races each of which were members of the Citadel.

Eventually the rapid transit system came close to its destination and Liara could see the CERD building slowly start to come into view through the window of the skycar. It was clear that the CERD didn't really spare much in monetary expenses when they developed to build their headquarters. The building was at least twenty stories in height with a statue of the founder of the CERD in the front courtyard, the asari Matriarch Serona.

Serona was one of the most brilliant minds of her time nearly two thousand years ago and was one of Liara's main inspirations for becoming an Archeologist. When she was just a child, Liara had always hoped that she'd be able to do something that would contribute just as much to galactic society.

Liara T'Soni stepped out of the rapid transit unit that she was in and stretched her limbs, being cooped up in the uncomfortable seats of that skycar for almost a full hour had started to make her limbs become somewhat stiff. Sometimes she wondered why they made most skycars so cramped in the first place. It was a wonder that two people could fit in there let alone three if you included the driver. However the asari scientist pushed those idle thoughts aside for the moment as they weren't really all that important right now.

The same salarian who had earlier introduced himself as Milos also stepped out of the cab as well. Once they landed Milos felt that it would be best if he were to bring her to the CERD HQ since she had never really been to there before. True Liara had been to the Citadel numerous times before in her life this was her first time going to the Council Exploration and Research Department's main operational HQ. Normally she would just go to one of the branch offices on one of the other worlds they were on.

"If you would so kindly follow me" said Rylon before guiding Liara towards the front entrance of the building. The inside of the CERD was like most government buildings in that it just looked nice but that was only for the sake of appearances. There were a number of chairs that one could use to rest their legs if they found the need to do so. Paintings of various planets and places that were rich in Prothean artifacts decorated the walls inside the waiting room. The salarian then approached the front desk where an asari was sitting looking over something on a computer terminal.

"Excuse me my name is Rylon and this is Liara T'Soni, we're both here for the briefing" he said activating his omni-tool to show her his ID. The asari looked over at the ID and then ran it through the personnel files. Once the ID was finally cleared the asari gave them directions to the briefing room of the building.

The room itself looked more like a small theatre, there were numerous rows of chairs that were all lined up in in a half circular formation from a center stage. Most of the seats were already filled with other scientists and what looked like military personnel from various Citadel races and even a few non Citadel ones including a pair of Krogan and a Quarian were waiting for the briefing to begin.

After Liara and Rylon had taken a seat, an asari stepped onto the, for lack of better term, stage and brought up an image of a garden world with her omni tool. Liara was positive that she hadn't seen this one before and she had been to a great many planets since becoming an archeologist. Perhaps it was a newly discovered world, but she could just as easily have been wrong about that as most of her work took place in the Traverse and in certain parts of Council space.

"Greetings, my name is Seras I'm with the Citadel Exploration and Research Department. As you all well know the Council has recently removed the law regarding activating dormant Mass Relays but only those with the expressed permission of the Council have been authorized to explore these systems, while exploring through Relay 319 we found a planet in a system that we now call Saris that is capable of sustaining life" she said.

The asari then inputted a few commands on her omni tool and the images of the planet changed to partially blurred images of what appeared to be ruins that could be seen from orbit.

"These ruins were detected by one of the probes we sent in, which indicates that there was once a civilization on this planet that had managed to perform limited spaceflight capabilities when one considers the amount of debris from what we believe to be some kind of satellites" she explained before an orange skinned salarian spoke up.

"Excuse me. Have question. How do you know that they're ruins? Images aren't exactly high in quality. Therefore not enough evidence to conclude that whatever civilization that built structures is dead" he said. The asari looked over at the salarian "The probes weren't able to pick up any form of radio transmissions or any other electronic communications coming from the planet" she explained.

"Ah I see" the salarian responded before the asari continued "All of you have been gathered here because you represent perhaps the best qualifications that we require for conducting a thorough research of these ruins as well as whoever built them."

This was something that was quite unexpected for Liara, she had never once thought in her life that she'd be part of some research team to a newly discovered planet, especially with the ban on activating dormant Mass Relays. The young Asari scientist was both excited and nervous at the same time. She couldn't wait to see what they would find there and yet there was also the possibility of hostile life forms but there was most likely going to be something interesting down there.

"The Turian Hierarchy frigate Hammer of the Spirits will be leaving for the Saris system in one standard galactic day, I suggest that you gather whatever belongings you have and head for the frigate as soon as you're able" the asari explained.

As the briefing continued none of the assembled individuals in the room noticed a disturbingly pale individual in a business suit with haunting sunken in blue eyes and shortly cropped black hair that was carrying a briefcase in the shadows. _'Thisssss may prove to be very interessssting indeed'_ the being thought mainly focusing his sights on Liara T'Soni, Wrex, Mordin, Garrus and Tali as well as a few of the other researchers and soldiers that were in the room with an almost sinister smile.

* * *

-Earth, Resistance Base, Coast near City 17-

* * *

Along the coastline outside of the near confines of City 17 there was a large house that bordered on being a mansion. Perhaps before the Seven Hour War it had been some kind of a B&B at some point or maybe it was some rich family's personal winter or summer home. The house had over seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, a spare generator and even a garage where the rebels kept their vehicles.

Whatever it was before the Seven Hour War it was now a home to a group of resistance fighters that were using it as base of operations for raids against convoys that the Combine used to transport supplies and prisoners to and from City 17 and some of the other outposts such as Nova Prospekt.

The leader of this group was a man known as Commander Adrian Shepard, a former US marine corporal in the HECU (Hazardous Environment Combat Unit). Shepard was one of the few survivors from the Black Mesa incident, out of an entire regiment of the HECU only around forty five men managed to survive Black Mesa, and only about twenty three survived the Seven Hours War.

Until just three years ago Shepard had been presumed dead along with most of his comrades at Black Mesa. If only they knew the truth of the matter. Up until three years ago Shepard had been floating in a black void for was only just a few seconds before the same person that had put him in there, the G-Man as Shepard had been calling him seeing as how he had no idea what his real name was, had finally pulled him out of the void.

After being pulled out the next thing that Shepard knew was that he was lying down right in front of the Black Mesa East resistance headquarters roughly twenty miles outside of City 17. Shepard was still clad in his HECU uniform just without the helmet or gasmask.

Upon entering Black Mesa East base he was interrogated for several hours by some resistance members who were concerned with him being some sort of a spy, and a bad one at that seeing as he claimed to not know anything about the Seven Hours war or the eighteen years of suffering that had followed for humanity. After a while an old member of the HECU a man by the name of Zaeed Massani confirmed Shepard's identity the marine corporal was and quickly informed on what had happened in the world since his disappearance.

For Shepard it was a hell of a lot to take in. The entire planet was under the control of an inter-dimensional empire known as the Combine after they had used the portal storms created during incident in Black Mesa to invade almost every square inch of the world, effectively cutting off every government and military from each other and leaving them all to fend for themselves. Due to the Combine's superior technology, strength, numbers and sheer ferocity, the war only lasted roughly seven hours before humanity was forced to unconditionally surrender to the Combine.

The human who had negotiated the surrender was none other than the one who used to be Black Mesa's head administrator, Doctor Wallace Breen, who was now in charge of City 17 as well as most of the Combine forces that had remained on the planet Earth. That sniveling little fucker is considered by almost everyone that was still loyal to the human race to be the worst traitor since Benedict Arnold.

Shepard was currently sitting outside of the large house that he and his buddies were using as a base of operations and was looking up at the stars, although such sights were common back when he was younger when he was still living with his parents back in a small town that was up in Maine, Shepard always loved the sight of so many stars in the night skies and often wondered when he was little as to what was up there and whether or not he would ever meet any of those that lived out there for himself.

However back then Shepard had no earthly idea that he'd end up getting that wish of his but in the worst way possible . All it took the deaths of over a thousand HECU marines as well most of the Black Mesa security guards and science team members for Adrian to see another planet and meet the inhabitants, but even then he _really_ wished that he hadn't.

Xen was quite literally a hell hole that was filled with the same monsters that now populated most of Earth. Even Xen's landscape was deadly to humans because of the fact that it was more like an asteroid belt rather than another planet and if one wasn't careful they could fall off one of the 'islands' and into who knew where. Adrian sighed and broke himself out of those depressing memories. There was no changing the past now. All that Shepard could do was move forwards into the future as best he could.

After watching the stars for another five or ten minutes or so Shepard walked back inside the base. He was going to need to get some rest seeing as how both he and Kaiden Alenko were scouting out a Combine outpost early in the morning and he was probably going to need the rest.

As Shepard reentered the dwelling he watched his step as most of the floorboards liked to creak when stepped on so he slowed his pace to keep the creaking to a minimum and not wake up the rest of his men. Lord knew that would be one hell of a problem just waiting to happen. Eventually Adrian Shepard made it to his room and laid down on the small semi comfortable bed and soon fell to sleep knowing that tomorrow was more than likely going to end up being a very long day.

To be continued.

A/N: yes I know what you're going to say, "You misspelled Adrian Shephard's name," but it was intentional, in this the player Shepard from the original Mass Effect and Adrian Shephard are one and the same in case you haven't figured that out.

No Korari is not a planet in the Mass Effect Universe (that I know of) and is instead just something that I made up myself.


	2. Preparations

The Half Life Effect

Chapter 2

Preparations

A/N: Humanity and the Combine don't have any Element Zero therefore there are no human biotics, with that being said I decided to make Kaidan more of an infiltrator class so to speak.

Also you'll probably see weapons that weren't in the original Half Life 2 game, the reason for this is that I seriously doubt that the resistance would only use weapons that had been stolen from the Combine because it would make more sense for them to use a wide variety of earth made weapons. Besides some of the weapons that I'm mentioning were actually going to be in the original release of Half Life 2 but were scrapped for whatever reason.

And about some of the reviews people have been sending me. Granted I like support and I'm glad that you support this fic but I would appreciate it if you explained in your reviews what it was you liked about it and what I can do to make the story better. I _really_ hate it when people send me reviews that are on the same lines as "This is good please continue"

* * *

-Earth, Resistance Base, Coast near City 17-

* * *

After a long almost sleepless night, sunrise had finally settled over the coast. The rays of light that came in from the sun shone through the partially blocked windows that had been reinforced with makeshift barricades built from various pieces of metal and wood. However the light entered through the cracks in the defenses and across the room to Adrian Shepard's bed and straight into his face, the light awakening the resistance officer from his slumber.

Upon waking, Shepard slowly and with no small amount of reluctance began to raise himself up from the bed. Once he was sitting upright, Shepard rubbed the sleep from his eyes and got up off of the bed and walked over to where he kept his normal attire.

He quickly put on a pair of camouflaged hunting pants and an olive drab colored T-shirt before putting on his HECU power vest. Shepard's power vest was a bit older when compared to some of the newer stuff that the rebels and the Combine overwatch troopers used. However it was well maintained and it was still a hell of a lot more effective than what the overwatch soldiers wore for armor.

On the shoulder pads of the armor was the same patch that all member of the HECU used to wear, on the patch was the symbol of a shield with a trident pointed up at the heavens that was crossed by both a sword and a lightning bolt. Shepard still proudly wore that emblem, it was a symbol of three months of training in pure hell with several other grunts as well as drill instructor Barnes who was now a lieutenant colonel in the resistance forces down at Black Mesa East.

After putting on his clothes he walked out the door and down the wide hallway of the old home, some of the other members of the cell he was in charge of were already up and about "Morning Loco" said James Vega who was walking down the hallway along with Shepard, clearly the guy was more than eager to get some food in his stomach. James Vega almost always called Adrian Shepard 'Loco' mainly because of his uncanny ability to survive some of the most insane of situations when the survivability rate was practically nonexistent.

"Good morning Vega" said Shepard as the two headed downstairs to the dining room so that they could all get something to eat, after all Shepard didn't want his rumbling stomach to give away his position when he and Kaiden went on recon. Downstairs it seemed that just about everyone was already up and about.

Jacob Taylor was serving some of the fried bullsquid steaks that he was cooking on the stove. About two days ago Taylor and Ashley Williams had managed to bag themselves a bullsquid on one of their hunts. This would fill the rebels' stomachs for a while since for some odd reason it took close to a month for bullsquid meat to become rotten when it was being refrigerated. Nobody really knew why and frankly some of them didn't even want to know.

As it turned out, there were actually a fair number of life forms on Xen were dextro-amino based such as the houndeyes and the boids which were merely harmless flying herbivores. There were a few other strange animals from the border world that were inedible to humans, the vortigaunts however, were able to use them as a source of nourishment due to their inability to eat anything other than dextro based foods.

In fact any resistance base that had vortigaunt personnel was required to have a water purification unit so that the vorts could safely drink from it without worrying about getting sick from whatever abnormal bacteria might be in the stuff.

Shepard sat down at the table and ate some of his breakfast. Adrian Shepard never really understood why but for some strange reason bullsquids tasted a lot like chicken. It was quite interesting, how an animal from an alien world could taste almost the exact same way that a certain animal from earth would

Eventually Adrian broke himself out of his random thoughts before he continued to eat the freshly cooked piece of bullsquid he had on his plate. Eventually after he had managed to finish off what was left of his breakfast before he proceeded down to the basement which doubled as their armory.

The resistance cell leader walked over to the basement's entryway which was a small hidden hatch which allowed the rebels that resided within the house to hide down there in case the home that they were using as a base was scouted by Combine overwatch troopers. Under normal circumstances Shepard would prefer to fight the soldiers off when they came patrolling through the area but this was a pretty good place to hole up as well as a good place to stage raids against Combine outposts that were in the area they usually just let the Combine pass through the area unless it was unavoidable.

Opening the hatch Shepard descended into the basement where three years' worth of stolen and salvaged weapons and ammunition were being housed. Adrian Shepard's first impulse was to go and take his most preferred weapon along with him, a modified AK-74m equipped an underslung grenade launcher and a holographic sight but he quickly pushed that thought aside as it wasn't equipped with a silencer and they didn't even have one to give it. Instead Shepard turned his gaze towards one of the mac10s that were lined up against a nearby gun rack.

Shepard grabbed the one that was closest to him and grabbed a few spare clips from a nearby ammo crate before he attached an almost oversized silencer straight onto the weapon's barrel. After that he slammed one of the clips into the weapon and pulled back on the mechanism that loaded the first round before he holstered the weapon.

Now seeing as how he no longer had any real reason to remain in the armory Adrian Shepard headed back up the hatch and walked over to the back entrance where Kaiden was probably there already, just waiting for him. Sure enough the second that he reached the back entrance corporal Kaiden Alenko was still standing there leaning against a wall acting as though he had been there for a while when really it had only been about ten to fifteen minutes at most.

"You ready commander?" he asked to which Shepard just nodded. Kaiden was a good guy one of the few children that had managed to survive the Seven Hours War nearly twenty years ago. Corporal Kaidan Alenko was only five years old when it happened and he was forced to watch as his parents were killed right in front of him by the Combine forces. This left him with a serious hatred of the Combine as well as anyone who dared to collaborate with them.

Because of this the instant that he was invited to join the growing resistance against the combine, Alenko signed up without a second thought. After a few years of working under colonel Odessa Cubbage, Kaidan was eventually reassigned by one of Admiral Anderson's lieutenants into Shepard's unit. Kaidan liked to make himself useful as a kind of scout for Shepard's team. He and usually one or two other members of Shepard's team, would go out to nearby Combine overwatch outposts and gather as much information as they could on them before the rest of them initiated a raid. Hell when they raided one of the more outlying Combine outposts that was within fifteen miles of Nova Prospekt they had managed to save a small group of attempted escapees of City 17 from ending up in that hellhole.

Unfortunately not all of their strikes against the Combine had such happy endings. A few weeks back Shepard had received word from one of the resistance's moles inside one of City 17's Civil Protection precinct that there was a shipment of civilians were being moved from City 14 to City 17 before they would be shipped off to Nova Prospekt. Once they arrived at that hellhole the Combine would turn them into stalkers which were little more than mindless cybernetic drones that obeyed the Combine without question or hesitation.

Shepard's team had managed to blow the transport train right off of the rails and went inside to get as many civilians out as they could. However it seemed that their mole had made a mistake on the status of the civilians that were being transported to the city, it turned out that each of the civilians had already been 'modified' into stalkers, which meant that they were forced to euthanize each and every one of them as an act of mercy.

Adrian forced those memories back down to where he left them and decided to focus on what was going on now rather than what had happened in the past. Today Kaidan and Shepard would be scouting out one of the outposts that the Combine liked to use as a checkpoint for overwatch troopers when they were shipping supplies to Nova Prospekt, City 17 as well as many other Combine occupied cities. If they were successful on this raid they would be able to cripple one of their major supply lines and get a lot of new weapons for the several rebel cells that operated in the area.

Kaidan had with him a standard issue MP7 that was issued to overwatch troopers. This was why most resistance members used the MP7 aside from whatever else they could get their hands on while out in the field. The MP7 that Kaiden was currently using was a bit different than the original variant though. This one had been modified with a suppresser but it also still carried the built in grenade launcher that most of the other versions of the weapon normally carried.

"You ready sir?" Kaidan asked to which Shepard nodded. "Always" the two then headed out through the back door which would take them out near the beach and from there they would follow along the cliff line until they reached their target which as reported to be along that area.

Ordinarily when they went to the cliff area they'd take the route on the beach but since it was spawning season for the antlions it would be near suicidal to take so much as one step on the sand. Once the season of fall started it also became known as spawning season for the antlions, for some reason they liked to be under the sand of the beach whenever spawning season took place.

They'd had a few close calls during spawning season but since their base was situated off of the beach it was normally pretty easy for them to keep off of the sand. Besides in some cases spawning season actually worked to their advantage. It prevented the Combine overwatch from attacking them effectively from behind which was one of the reasons that they chose that building as their base.

Eventually Shepard and Kaidan made their way to the cliffs in which they would follow and old trail which, according to Kaidan would lead them to that overwatch outpost that he said he'd found during his last reconnaissance.

Once they hit the trail by the cliffs Shepard saw one of the old mining entrances to Ravenholm that had been completely blocked off by a large makeshift barricade of wooden planks and scraps of metal. In the center were large spray painted letters that read "DO NOT ENTER!" along with a very crudely drawn skull and crossbones which had been painted directly underneath the makeshift warning.

That sign brought up a lot of very unpleasant memories for Shepard's team. A little over a year ago, Shepard and the other members of his resistance fighters would use those mining tunnels as their own little shortcut into Black Mesa East if they were ever needed for something there. The mining tunnel led to the town of Ravenholm, which had been abandoned shortly after the Seven Hours War. Just a few years ago a large group of escapees from City 17 decided to set up shop there and give whatever materials that they didn't need to Black Mesa East.

The people that had used to live in that town were good, honest and compassionate to almost everybody. Or at least they _were_ good, honest and compassionate people until the Combine had decided to launch an artillery strike with shells that were chockfull of headcrabs. The entire town was completely overrun in a matter hours due to the sheer number of the little bastards that were being used in the attack.

Shepard and his team did what they could but they only managed to save a small number of the people that were living in the town before they were forced to pull out of Ravenholm. However despite having saved several lives it was difficult for most of Shepard's team to get some sleep for several days given what they had seen happen to that poor town.

Nowadays the only ones that entered that hellhole were either those that had a death wish or were just incredibly desperate to get to Black Mesa East. Thankfully though the barricades leading into the old mine shaft had remained undisturbed so it was very unlikely that anyone had tried to go down into that deathtrap. Shepard and Kaidan continued on their path for a while longer and as they went Shepard noticed that Kaiden was becoming more and more cautious with each step he took. The former HECU corporal emulated his comrade's example and started to become more and more wary of his surroundings.

The trail that lead up from the nearby cliffs eventually came to a relatively large rock formation that was situated close to the beach. Before they could make their way there the two resistance fighters heard the telltale sound of a voice modulating implant that all overwatch troopers were given upon having their bodies 'altered' for lack of better terms.

Most Overwatch troopers were former citizens that had become 'problems' in the eyes of the Combine and Doctor Breen, and as such were shipped to Nova Prospekt to be 'adjusted' into Overwatch troopers, or Stalkers.

"Overwatch command, this is overwatch patrol two-one-niner there's nothing new to report" after the overwatch soldier finished speaking another voice filled the air, this one was clearly a female's, synthesized and completely unemotional female's but female nonetheless "Affirmative, patrol two-one niner continue standard patrol route of sector twelve-bravo"

Not wasting any time Shepard pulled out his mac10 and pulled back on the weapon's cocking mechanism which sent a nine millimeter bullet into the chamber, readying the weapon for use. He then looked over to where both he and Kaidan had heard the overwatch trooper speaking up.

Much to both Shepard and Kaidan's relief it turned out that there were only two of the gas masked bastards. In other words, just a small foot patrol. Although it was incredibly tempting to simply blow the brains out of the two Overwatch soldiers and simply move on, it wouldn't be a very good idea since who knew when their next check in would be.

If Shepard and Kaidan had both gone and killed the two overwatch troopers that were currently walking away from them the other Overwatch troopers would eventually send out search parties to find out what had happened to them and if they found the bodies they would go into an elevated alert status making their mission a whole lot harder. Shepard and Kaidan remained where they were. Staying completely still and quiet as to not attract any kind of attention from either of the two soldiers that were currently heading in the opposite direction of where their destination was. Once both rebels believed themselves to be completely out of earshot, Shepard and Kaidan moved on.

As they continued on the rocks that they were using to conceal their presence were slowly starting to become few and far between which would make them easier to be spotted by any sentry posts. Shepard's concern about staying hidden however turned out to be ill founded since they were currently heading up a hill that according to Kaidan, provided a good position to overlook the majority of the Combine outpost.

Eventually they made their way to the top of the hill and sure enough Kaidan was absolutely correct. From where they were positioned they could see a good chunk of the outpost. The outpost itself was made out of what was left of a small convenience store that had been cleaned out of anything that the Combine considered to be useless when they decided to move in a while back.

Now the convenience store had been transformed into a makeshift supply depot for the overwatch. The fortifications of the depot included several parked APCs up against the brick wall of the store while several Combine overwatch troopers patrolled outside of the four foot steel barricades that were located right outside of the store's front. Two pulse gun emplacements had been mounted on either side of the outpost's main entrance. There were also four small defense towers in the immediate perimeter although thankfully they lacked any form of mounted weaponry which would make things a little easier when they raided the place.

From what Shepard could see there were also a fair number of overwatch troopers patrolling parts of the base which meant that it would be damn near impossible to get any closer so that they could get a decent look at the place without getting spotted by the patrolling troopers. However all the security around the depot told Shepard that there must be something worthwhile being stored inside. All they had to do was wipe out the overwatch soldiers guarding it and take possession of whatever goodies were inside waiting for them.

After memorizing the patrol routes that the overwatch soldiers were taking as well as getting a general layout of the defenses, Shepard and Kaidan made their way back to base in order to start planning for the raid that they would be attempting that night.

* * *

-Citadel, docking bay 12-

* * *

Docking bay twelve was almost swamped with both passengers trying to get to the large group of shuttles that were waiting for their passengers to board so that they could be taken to the Turian frigate, Hammer of the Spirits which would be serving as the main transport and protective detail for the scientific expedition team.

Liara was making her way to the shuttle having already left a message for her mother that she would be outside of contact for a month or two. Originally Liara was hoping to have spoken to her mother, an Asari matriarch by the name of Benezia one last time before heading off to this new expedition since she wouldn't be back for a while. However this wasn't the case as Liara's mother was most likely stuck in some sort of political meeting or something similar.

The young Asari scientist let out a sigh, Liara and her mother hadn't spoken very often since she had completed her courses back at one of the many universities that were back on the Asari home world of Thessia and had begun her first archeological dig. Over the past number of years Liara had been meaning to contact her mother but for some reason Liara had kept putting it off and instead decided to focus on her work as an archeologist.

The lines that lead into each of the shuttles moved quickly as there was hardly any luggage to be moved. The reason for this was because that all of their equipment and what few personal effects that the scientists and security personnel had decided to bring with them had already been loaded onto the Hammer of the Spirits on a separate group of shuttles. Liara looked over at some of the others that were going on the mission and saw that there was a mixture of excitement and anxiety among the others that had been chosen for the mission.

She understood how that felt, after all they had all been awarded a rare privilege to go to a completely unexplored system. Liara was practically shaking with excitement. Eventually she entered the shuttle along with several other members of the expedition. Liara quickly found herself a seat on the transport and quickly strapped herself into one of the seats. Not two seconds later Liara saw a female Quarian walk towards the area where Liara was currently sitting down at.

"Excuse me, would it be alright if I could sit here? Most of the other seats have been taken" she said before Liara nodded. The Quarian sat down in a nearby seat that was right across from where Liara was sitting. Deciding that it would be impolite not to introduce herself Liara spoke up "I'm Liara T'Soni I'm one of the archeologists that's been assigned to this mission" she said.

The Quarian looked over at Liara and decided to give her name as well "Nice to meet you my name is Tali Zorah Nar-Rayya" Liara started to grow curious, it was rare to see a Quarian outside of the Flotilla and soon Liara found herself asking "Pardon me for asking but what exactly is a Quarian doing outside of the Flotilla?" she asked.

Tali didn't appear to be all that offended, it was a valid question after all. Most of the Citadel races didn't know much about the culture of the Migrant Fleet because a lot of those that lived on the Citadel or one of the Citadel's colonies didn't really interact with that many Quarians since they normally tended to stay with the Migrant Fleet.

"I'm on my pilgrimage, it's every Quarian's rite of passage into adulthood. After a while each Quarian has to leave the fleet and bring a gift back that will be of use to the fleet" she explained but Liara was still very curious. She loved learning about the cultures of other races and this was no exception. "What kind of a gift is required?" she asked.

Tali shrugged almost nonchalantly "It could be anything, from an extremely large sum of credits to even a whole new ship, the more worthwhile the gift the more valuable to the crew you'll become" the Quarian explained before elaborating even further "Personally I'm hoping that the planet we're going to will have some kind of worthwhile technology that may be of use by the Migrant Fleet" she stated.

Before Liara could respond with more questions a voice from nearby spoke up "Possible however unlikely, nature of the ruins in system suggests that this is a limited spaceflight species, unlikely that they have advanced technology, but just as possible that they developed something very unique and useful with the technology that they once had"

Liara and Tali looked over at the newcomer, a salarian with orange skin and had only one horn on the top of his head unlike most of his race which had two. It was possible that his other one may have been either removed or destroyed in some kind of an accident sometime back. The salarian took in a breath before he started talking again "Sorry, forgot to introduce myself, Mordin Solus, head geneticist for the mission, may I also get your names and was wondering if I could grab a seat?" he said in a rapid-fire voice.

The two that were sitting down in the seats were barely able to pick up on what the Salarian had said before they both introduced themselves and allowed him to grab a seat next to them. After Mordin grabbed a seat the shuttle began to lurch forwards signaling that the shuttle was now taking off and heading straight for the Hammer of the Spirits. As the shuttle unclasped itself from the docking clams its large frame tilted upwards as its afterburners fired sending it out of the Citadel's docking unit and towards the Hierarchy frigate.

While the shuttle made its way out of the docking bay located in the Citadel's Wards Liara looked out the window that was adjacent to her seat and looked out the window at the other ships that were going to and from the docking bay. Almost all of these ships were of civilian make and belonged to a variety of species most of which came from the races that were part of the Citadel government.

But there were even more that belonged to non-Council races such as the Hanar or the Volus. Almost every race had an embassy on the Citadel aside from a few races such as the Quarians, Vorcha, Krogan and the Batarians who had lost their seat after Salarian STG (Special Tasks Group) teams found out that the Batarian government was sponsoring slaving raids in Citadel controlled territory and colonies.

The other ships going to and from the docking bay quickly became smaller as the shuttle gained more distance away from the Citadel docking bays. Eventually even the Citadel itself became a little smaller before the shuttles carrying well over a hundred CERD exploratory staff. The finest minds were brought to bear for this task of exploring this new world that they had found.

Unlike most of the other planets that the Citadel Exploration and Research Department had explored since the ban on activating dormant Mass Relays was lifted five years ago they had encountered only a handful of habitable worlds that had shown any signs of ruins of what was clearly a civilized species. However almost all of them were quickly reported to be Prothean in origin.

These ruins however appeared to be much more recent if the images that had been taken by the CERD probes were anything to go by. But Liara could just as easily be wrong about this. The images were highly distorted and this could end up as just a new group of Prothean ruins or something similar. Despite the possibility of just stumbling onto yet another Prothean ruin Liara didn't really feel that it mattered, either way she'd be exploring and studying ruins from an extinct race.

* * *

-Earth, Resistance Base, Armory-

* * *

Shepard and Kaidan had returned from their little scouting trip almost eight hours earlier and the two took a well-earned rest upon returning from their mission. After getting some rest Shepard announced to the rest of his team that they'd begin the raid on the outpost in five hours' time. After the announcement had been made everyone scrambled to get everything set up.

Jacob Taylor who had the most engineering experience spent most of the time to prepare making absolutely sure that the truck that they were going to be using for tonight's raid was in perfect working condition. Zaeed Massani, Ashley Williams, Wallace Jenkins and James Vega were already in the armory gearing up for the raid. Their chief medical officer Nicolai "Sev" Shevchenko had already finished packing his first-aid pack and weapons and was waiting for the rest of the team to get ready by the truck.

Although Nicolai was somewhere in his early forties, he had the stamina and endurance of someone almost half his age. Before the Seven Hours War, Nicolai Shevchenko had been studying to become a surgeon and had almost gotten his MD when the Black Mesa Incident occurred and in the events following that horrific forty-eight hour event was caught in the middle of the short war that followed.

Poor old Nicolai was never able to get his medical school degree but he proved to be a more than competent medical officer and soldier when the need arose. Because of his skills and his obvious intense hatred for the Combine for destroying almost everything that he had ever known and loved, the former med student was recruited into the resistance very early on.

Nicolai's story was just one of the countless others that Shepard had heard of before from countless other resistance members. Everyone that stood before Shepard now had lost most if not all of their friends and loved ones during the Seven Hours War or the eighteen years of pure hell that had followed in its wake. Mostly the other resistance fighters preferred not to talk about their pasts, instead they buried the pain and loss they had of their loved ones deep within and kept it hidden as best they could.

It wasn't all bad though, most of the soldiers that were on Shepard's team had seemed to have managed to come to terms with their grief a long time ago and even if they hadn't, they never let it interfere with their work. However at least most of them had something that Shepard never did, closure. They knew that their loved ones were dead and buried in a makeshift cemetery somewhere but Shepard had no idea what had happened to his folks.

After Shepard had, for lack of better terms 'reappeared' into the world he immediately wanted to get into touch with his parents and find out as to whether they were still alive or not. Eventually Shepard managed to get into contact with a resistance cell that was operating in Maine, in the former United States of America. The rebels that were operating there indulged his requests to check it out. When they reported back they said that the entire area was little more than a pile of rubble and that any hope of there being any survivors of the town was pretty much slim to none at the most.

When they checked what was left of Shepard's childhood home they didn't find any bodies or even bones. Every single time that Shepard thought about his parents he wondered what had happened to them. Were their bodies in one of the many mass graves scattered across the world or had they simply been vaporized when a bomb fell on them while they tried to find some semblance of shelter in the slaughter that was the Seven Hours war?

Eventually Shepard accepted the fact that he would probably never know his family's final fate or even where they were buried, that is if there was anything left of them to bury. Instead he focused almost all of his energy into fighting the Combine. Putting those thoughts behind him Shepard grabbed an AK74m that came with an attached underslung grenade launcher and holographic sight.

Shepard almost always carried the same two backup weapons with him. First he had his trusty K-Bar combat knife which had been with him since the beginning of the Black Mesa incident and a desert eagle magnum pistol with attached laser sight. Shepard looked over at the other members of his team and saw what they were equipping themselves with.

Zaeed carried the same weapons that he always carried whenever he went into combat; a Combine pulse rifle and energy sniper along with a 500. Smith and Wesson magnum as a sidearm. Jacob Taylor had already gotten his favorite weapons before going out to check on the truck, a spas12 shotgun and a USP 9mm, the man always did prefer a simpler loadout compared to the rest of them.

Ashley Williams walked over to the nearest gun rack and grabbed a Combine pulse rifle and a USP pistol and a few grenades. She always did prefer a more standard loadout to some of the heavier equipment that they had on hand. James Vega had a SAW in his hands while an AK74m was slung over his shoulder. Jenkins meanwhile grabbed an MP7 (The MP7 is the standard SMG in Half-Life 2) that came with an attached grenade launcher and a spas12 off of the armory walls and started loading the weapons with a rather anxious look on his face. Jenkins was always eager, sometimes even overeager to prove himself. Shepard had tried to get the young resistance fighter to drop that attitude of his because on the battlefield, being overeager got people killed.

After everyone had finished gathering their weapons Shepard called Jacob back into the armory after he had finished checking their vehicle. Shepard then went over the plan of attack. Zaeed and Kaidan would provide overwatch and sniper support from the cliffs as well as take out as many guards as possible while Shepard and the rest of the team save for Jacob and Nicolai, moved and eliminated any remaining hostiles on the outside of the outpost.

Once that part of the plan was finished, the team would continue inside and eliminate any remaining opposition while Jacob drove up with the truck. From there they would proceed to take whatever supplies or Intel that they could get back to the truck and bring it back to base before overwatch response teams showed up. with the mission briefing finished everyone went back to their assigned duties and continued to get ready for the raid. As they did Shepard hoped that everything would go according to plan on this one.

* * *

To be continued.


End file.
